The present invention relates to electronic musical instruments and more particularly to an output stage for a multitimbral electronic musical instrument providing automatic detection of the use of submix outputs.
Electronic musical instruments typically have a single audio output, either monophonic or stereophonic. When used for recording, these instruments are connected into a mixboard, which then routes the audio from certain instruments through effects processors such as reverberators or equalizers, and then produces a single final mono or stereo mixdown of the several instruments used in a musical performance, each appropriately processed.
Modern electronic musical instruments have the ability to play several instruments or timbres at once, that is they are multitimbral. While it is obvious that the differing timbres can be routed to one of several mono or stereo outputs for further routing through the mixboard, several problems arise from this approach. First, a given user may wish to use the instrument with or without a mixboard, and hence may or may not desire the multiple outputs to be functional. Secondly, a user may wish to use some effects processing, but wish to avoid the expense and complexity of a mixboard.